Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

It looks as if the poetry readings at the Souterrain Cafe on lovely Bělehradska St. are going to be a regular event.  Tonight was the second one and it was massively successful.  It’s in an old, brick cellar, which is traditional for these kinds of events, and for Prague.  There was room enough for a good sized group near the front, and tables further back for people who were still in the audience, but maybe not paying quite as close attention.
There was musical accompaniment, a didgeridoo and a guitar.  It makes the bad poets sound good, and it’s not bad with most of the good poets, either.
The performances were the usual mixed bag, some mildly comedic, some sad, some filled with confusing metaphors, and a couple of extra musical acts, one girl who sang and I’ve seen her before but didn’t remember until halfway through the evening, she’s the one who got really hammered at the reading for her birthday party and somebody started giving her shit for talking over the readings, and everybody else said hey, shut up, she can do that, it’s her birthday.   She was really good.  Then, a guy from Bolivia who sang a couple of songs in Spanish.
It’s funny, Spanish isn’t even in the top 3 of languages I know the best, but I understood his lyrics better than I would for a song in Czech or French.
There was a wide range of other language poetry, French, of course (the organizer is French and likes reading from his book very much), some Russian, a bit of Czech, and even one poem in Hebrew.
My stuff, short as it was, was well received, we had a nice smoke break, if you know what I mean, and it was all around an extremely satisfying experience.
Hope we hang onto this location for a while.

I’m not sure how I feel about letting convicted felons vote.  I suspect that even for most convicted felons, it’s not their greatest concern.  But, very much like Sanders’ vote against the Brady Bill, which also angered a lot of people, he explained his position clearly, without apologies, and whether or not you agree you have to admit he makes sense.  Basically, government should not be looking for ways to stop people voting, because once they start, they never stop.
Still, it’s not a winning point politically.  Bernie became popular because he is for universal health care, a decent minimum wage, getting money out of politics, saving the environment while creating jobs, and a wide range of other issues.  The difference between these issues, and whether or not felons should vote, is that they are essential, in some cases life and death issues.  Also, they affect millions of people, in some cases everybody.
These are the things we need to keep talking about, and not get distracted by side issues.  They have done this to us again and again.  Abortion, gay rights, guns, Israel, immigration, reparations.  They find something people can get emotional about and try to make the election about that, and people generally fall for it.
This election is about restoring democracy.  This election is about saving the planet.  Don’t get sidetracked by bullshit.

Seth Moulton, a not terribly well known congressman from Massachusetts, is the latest Democrat to announce a run for the presidency.  They’re almost up to 20 now.  It’s more crowded than the Republican primaries of 2016.
Which might not be a bad thing.  It brings a lot of attention to the debates, and the Republicans did, in the end, win, so it could work out.  Except, there’s no reason to believe that the Democrats have any intention of nominating the most popular (that would be Bernie) candidate, and it seems likely that the whole thing is a ploy to make sure Bernie doesn’t get 51% of the delegates on the first ballot.  After that, the Superdelegates kick in, and they can nominate any human dog turd they like, because they aren’t bothered at all about screwing their own voters.
At a quick browse of his policies, Seth Moulton is an attractive candidate.  He’s for the Green New Deal, but would like to emphasize the job creation aspect of it.  Fair enough, I’m good with that.  He wants to reduce military spending, which I’m all for, and abolish the Electoral College, which I’m not against although I think it’s just a feelgood issue for this year, and give statehood to D.C. and Puerto Rico, which is way cool.  Also, he was one of the chief opponents of Pelosi getting the speakership, which makes me really like him because Pelosi is a nasty old prune faced multi-millionairess.
Not so great on Medicare for All. He’s one of those ‘there are better ways’ hypocrites.  If you’re in favor of everybody getting health care, you should be in favor of Medicare for All.  It’s one of those litmus test things.
The other thing is, if he’s in favor of a Green New Deal, and wants to reduce military spending, and all the other good things, why isn’t he just supporting Sanders?
So, final analysis:  Not the worst person in the race, but he sure as hell is no Bernie Sanders.

Pete Buttigieg, the gentrifier of neighborhoods, the sacker of one who exposed racism in the police, and otherwise rather forgettable mayor of South Bend, Indiana, took a pot shot at Bernie the other day.  Well, not actually at Bernie, but at Bernie supporters, whose votes he would theoretically need if by some fluke he were to win the Democratic nomination.  He said we’re like Trump supporters.
To be fair to Pete, whose main qualification for the presidency seems to be youthful good looks,  sort of like a gay John Edwards (remember John Edwards?), his full statement was a little bit longer, and he said we’re alike in that we’re both outraged at the system and want to blow it up.
Except that instituting universal health care is not blowing the system up.  It would actually improve the system quite a bit, by making it simpler, more economically efficient, and less likely to kill people.  Ditto free college tuition.  That has nothing to do with tearing the system down.  Green environment.  Very system positive.  Makes the system self-sustaining, in fact.  Will add years to the system.     Raising the minimum wage only threatens the system if you’re a business owner who is paying their employees less than $15 an hour.  If you’re somebody who makes less than that, Sanders is going to make the system work for you.
In other words, we’re nothing at all like Trump supporters.  We support a candidate who has a positive plan for the future of the country, and we agree with it.  Trump supporters support Trump because he is an ignorant, racist yahoo, just like them.
So, piss off, Pete.  We’re not having it.

We took a long drive out to a small village today, to visit a small zoo.  The village  is Chleby, which means breads, and it seemed the zoo was their largest, in fact their only, attraction.  This is not a negative statement about Chleby.  There are lots and lots of villages and small towns around the world which have no attractions at all, and yet people live in them quite happily.

It was a lovely Spring day.  Helena mentioned, when we were about halfway there, that she had had no idea how far it was, and I said it didn’t matter because it was a lovely drive, and it was.  The canola is in full flower, and yellow is the new green.

The zoo cost a bit more to get in than we thought, and, as far as zoos go, was one of the lamest I’ve ever seen.  Statues of animals seemed to outnumber actual animals, and some of the animals on exhibit were chickens and goats.  Kids could feed the goats and deer (10 kc for food) and there was a big playground for little kids and a couple of snack bars.  Isabel had her picture taken with a parrot on her shoulder and the parrot grabbed her glasses right off her face and threw them on the ground, that was pretty funny.  There were camels, looking shabby and shedding and out of place, and a couple of bears.  That was it, about 45 minutes maybe, and we were through.

It wasn’t much of a zoo for the price, and I’m not recommending it.  It was a lovely day for a trip though, and a nice walk in a small village.